Once again, through the financing of scientific studies, something that seemed impossible was achieved. It was recently announced the Silica devicedesigned comprehensively by researchers from Microsoft and capable of store information for 10,000 years.
He does it in no less than a glass plate with a data file mode known as optical storage. Such technology is based on laser writing on glass directly and ultra-fast.
The advanced piece It is 120 millimeters on a side and 2 millimeters thick, and It is organized in 301 layers.
that space It has a data density of 1.59 gigabits per cubic millimeter and one 4.8 terabyte capacity.
Save and recover files for thousands of years
The study was published on February 18, 2026 in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. Under the English title Laser writing in glass for dense, fast and efficient archival data storagedetails how the laser writing on glass can achieve “dense, fast and efficient” file data storage.
Those responsible are the members of the Silica Projectof Microsoft Researchthe area of the multinational in charge of technological research.
It is worth clarifying that this way to preserve files It is effective both when saving them and when recovering them. And you can do it in no less than large amounts and with a high level of performance.
The expansion in laser writing: in addition to silica glass, borosilicate glass can be used
Among the diverse desires of humanity is the safeguarding of knowledge for the generations to come. For this, the magnetic tapes and the hard drives are options to preserve files, although suffer from a limited lifespan.
This is why the approaches of optical storage for long-term data retention. In particular, the already mentioned laser writing on robust supports like glassan alternative that promises to give files greater longevity.
Likewise, optical storage devices offer important advantages over others with the same functionality, such as tapes and microfilms. Basically the first ones have faster access times and a hierarchical file organization.
Regarding the recent work of Microsoft Researchthis achieved an end-to-end system that includes writing, storing and retrieving information.
Besides, extended storage capacity to borosilicate glassand until now this technique was associated with high purity silica glass or fused quartz.
Here’s the amazing thing: accelerated aging tests on voxels written in borosilicate suggested a data lifespan greater than 10,000 years. At the same time, borosilicate is less expensive, and offers reduced read and write complexity.
The background: “Superman” in a quartz crystal
The computer company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen had already taken steps in this direction. In 2019 himself Project Silica allowed the 1978 film ‘Superman’ to be stored in a quartz crystal.
Were 75.6 GB of information which remained in a piece of glass measuring 7.5 cm x 7.5 cm x 2 mm, approximately the size of a coaster.
The work—which was the first test of the research team—was carried out in collaboration with the famous film production company Warner Bros.
He hard silica glass It can withstand being boiled in hot water, baked, microwaved, immersed in water, rubbed and demagnetized. That is to say that is protected from the terrible threats that cultural treasures can suffer and invaluable histories.
